A chaperone protein (bottom, yellow) called SecB guides the folding of another protein (transparent) in this artist’s illustration. “Interactions with chaperones are very common for all proteins,” says Sander Tans of the FOM Institute for Atomic and Molecular Physics in Amsterdam, and they exert a strong influence on protein shape and function.
But previous studies of the molecular details of protein folding have left chaperones out of the picture.